Lent

On the Tuesday night before Ash Wednesday, I struggled to come up with something meaningful to give up for Lent. I considered pop, which I had done once before. Of course I gave up my Diet Coke habit while I was pregnant and nursing, but it has since returned. Something about this choice just seemed kind of...shallow this year. Would the absence of pop really make me depend more on the Lord? I laughed as I thought "Oh Lord, I desperately want a Diet Coke...fill me with your Holy Spirit instead!" No, that wasn't it. I thought about TV, but Mike and I watch a few shows together after Joel is in bed and really enjoy that time together. I wasn't going to ask him to give up American Idol (and the fun we have watching it) because of my decision. I felt like I was on the right track though.

Our home isn't one where the TV is on 24/7. This was something we talked about before we were married that was important to us, especially after we had kids. Over the past few months I got in the routine of turning on the TV as I ate my lunch, sometimes leaving it on for the rest of the afternoon regardless of what I was doing. I am a sucker for reruns of Friends, Home Improvement, Scrubs and (this one is sort of humiliating) Beverly Hills 90210. The thought occurred to me that if I didn't "have time" to complete my Bible study some weeks, it seemed absurd that I had time to watch these shows that I had already seen before! So, I gave up reruns.

Naturally, this resulted in the TV being off more. I actually discovered that I had it on more than I realized. We also went down to basic cable and found we didn't really miss the extra channels. All of the sudden I had time for the Bible study, other reading, exercise, house cleaning, and even blogging that I didn't before. *Although you haven't seen an increase in posts, I have several drafts I have been working on.* It is humbling to admit, but giving up reruns definitely made me focus more on the Lord.